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Outsourcing Public Employment Services: The Australian Experience
Author(s) -
Webster Elizabeth,
Harding Glenys
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8462.00193
Subject(s) - outsourcing , citation , library science , social research , sociology , media studies , management , social science , political science , economics , law , computer science
This article discusses the theoretical rationale for outsourcing government human services and provides a short contextual history of outsourcing in Australian placement and labor market programs. Since the mid 1990's, there has been a steady growth in the propensity for government organizations to outsource their human welfare related services. The intensity of competition and the ownership structure of a market are related but not necessarily linked economic phenomena. However, most government funded activities are provided by the government and most government provided services have been protected from competitive market forces. However, there is also a large body of welfare-related services which are government funded and government provided and are also shielded from competition and market incentives. In Australia, these are mainly services that have been provided to guarantee minimum consumption levels across the population in accordance with community notions of economic justice and equality